Introduction : setting the stage
Act I : Before Rodgers and Hammerstein. Show boat : in the beginning ; Anything goes : songs ten, book three ; Porgy and Bess : Broadway opera ; On your toes and Pal Joey : dance gets into the act and "sweet water from a foul well" ; The cradle will rock : a labor musical for art's sake ; Lady in the dark and One touch of Venus : the Broadway stranger and his American dreams ; Stage versus screen (1) : before Rodgers and Hammerstein
Act II : the Broadway musical after Oklahoma!. Carousel: the invasion of the integrated musical ; Kiss me, Kate : the taming of Cole Porter ; Guys and dolls and The most happy fella : the greater Loesser ; My fair lady : from Pygmalion to Cinderella ; West side story : the very model of a major musical ; Stage versus screen (2) : after Oklahoma!
Epilogue : the age of Sondheim and Lloyd Webber. Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street and Sunday in the park with George : happily ever after West side story with Sondheim ; The Phantom of the opera : the reigning champion of Broadway.
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Enchanted evenings : the Broadway musical from Show boat to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber by Geoffrey Holden Block. ISBN 9780195384000. Published by Oxford University Press in 2009. Publication and catalogue information, links to buy online and reader comments.
